


Confess

by ThisKwamiNeeds_aNap



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Other, TV Special: Miraculous World: New York, aromantic adrien agreste, asexual marinette dupain cheng, implied queerplatonic adrimi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27933088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisKwamiNeeds_aNap/pseuds/ThisKwamiNeeds_aNap
Summary: The plan is so crazy, it *has* to work. Adrien and Marinette are alone, the adrenaline is real, and the stakes have never been higher...There’s no way that Marinette can “just a friend” her way out of this one.Or: Canon Divergent from the New York special. In which there is no akuma or sentimonster and Jess’ plan gets to play out uninterrupted. Adrienette is just as beautifully stupid as always, and everyone says aro rights.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 12
Kudos: 60





	Confess

**Author's Note:**

> Aromantic- someone who does not experience romantic attraction. May or may not be repulsed by the idea of romance. 
> 
> Aro- short form of Aromantic. 
> 
> Alloromantic- someone who is not aromantic. 
> 
> Arospec- someone who falls on the Aromantic Spectrum between Aromantic and Alloromantic. 
> 
> Asexual- someone who does not experience sexual attraction. Some people who identify as Asexual are comfortable having sex, while others are repulsed by sex. 
> 
> Queerplatonic- a committed and intimate nonromantic relationship.
> 
> In this fic, Adrien is arospec, and Marinette is alloromantic and asexual

Manhattan was gorgeous. Sure, it was crowded, and polluted, and loud, but Adrien couldn’t bring himself to care. He was risking enough by coming here, so he might as well enjoy it. 

The buildings were so much taller than anything Adrien had seen before; he got dizzy trying to look for the sky. The enormous museums and galleries were so soothing just to stand in, the wide open spaces giving him a sense of euphoria. It flooded Adrien with a calmness, that was almost enough to wash away the overwhelming guilt.

Every corner was filled with monuments that he’d seen in dozens of movies. Adrien was continuously struck by deja-vu, like he was returning to a place from his childhood, even though he’d never been further from home. 

None of that could compare to the absolute freedom he felt. He was far away from his house and his room and his responsibilities, and his father. And Ladybug, but that was… it would be okay. He was surrounded by friends, and allowed to be part of a group. It felt so good, he almost wished it would never end. 

Almost. 

The class traveled everywhere either by bus or by foot, and Adrien was a part of the pack, which was even more unreal. He was so used to being separated from his classmates, forced to travel by private limousine, that the travel time with his classmates was the best part of the trip.

Unfortunately, Adrien was remarkably inexperienced at traveling in a crowd. Nino had linked arms with him after the second time that Adrien got lost, which happened before they’d even left the airport. Still, he couldn’t possibly be upset about it. He got to hear Nino excitedly rambling about the acoustics of Carnegie hall and the Broadway shows that were being performed in the theatres surrounding them.

So Adrien didn’t regret the trip, exactly. He was overwhelmed with joy, and Nino’s company alone was millions of times better than anything Adrien dared to hope for. Still, the joy couldn’t erase the periodic flashes of terror that kept overtaking him.

Adrien couldn’t stop glancing over his shoulder, irrationally afraid that Ladybug would appear. He was exhausted from the flight over, which had been filled with nightmares. He’d really hoped that Marinette would actually talk to him on the flight over, but he couldn’t blame her for feeling sick. It wasn’t her fault. He couldn’t complain about being alone for the entire flight, not after everything she’d already done for him. And he’d managed to survive. As soon as they’d touched the ground, and his cell service had returned, he’d frantically checked the akuma alert on his phone. The relief that nothing catastrophic had happened was quickly dulled by the looming flight back. He couldn’t do anything except hope that he’d get lucky again.

Even though he had refreshed his phone roughly a thousand times in the past minute, worried that he would miss something back in Paris, he was still grateful that Marinette had brought him here. He had no idea how he’d managed to earn her friendship, but he was sure that it was one of the most important friendships in his life- up there with Nino and Plagg.

“Hey, I can’t find my headphones.” Nino had whispered. “Could you look in the other room for me? I’ll check here.”

Of course Adrien’s luck hadn’t lasted. Of course he had ended up trapped behind a locked door, fighting off panic, as an inhuman glowing *thing* filled the room with booming speech.

“I am Solitude,” the voice stated, with a force that echoed inside of Adrien’s bones. “I am here to take captive those who are loved by no one.”

Adrien slammed his shoulder against the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He didn’t even process the words before he was pushing Marinette aside, trying to get between her and their opponent. Even if he couldn’t transform, he had to protect her.

The glowing mass made an inhuman laughing noise. “It’s not her I’m after. It’s you, Adrien Agreste.” Flashlight-like eyes twisted to aim directly at him, making Adrien temporarily blind.

“What?” Marinette asked. She sounded remarkably calm, if a bit confused. “What are you talking about?” 

“I seek out those who no one loves-”

“No, I got that part.” Marinette said, mechanically. Seriously, how was she so calm? She was scanning the room strategically, almost bored, as if this was an everyday occurrence. “I’m just lost on the part where *Adrien* is loved by no one.”

“If someone really loved him, why is he all alone, separated from his classmates…”

“He’s…” Marinette trailed off, staring at the glowing figure with an expression that was more judgemental than concerned.

She still didn’t seem scared at all. Actually, she did live in Paris. Adrien hadn’t thought much about how akumas impacted civilians, but clearly Marinette had become numb to the fear of supervillains. 

“First of all,” Marinette said, “that could apply to me just as easily? I’m separated from the group, too? So that’s a super weird point to make. But also, he’s literally here looking for his friend’s headphones? He wouldn’t even be in this room if he didn’t have friends. And he has a million friends; we all fought for him to go on this trip. I didn’t give that speech about him being our sock Washington and march all the way to his house for some lower level villain to claim that no one cares about him.”

Adrien could’ve sworn he heard a loud sigh from across the room, but it was probably just the building settling.

“That doesn’t count.” The looming figure said after a very long pause. “It has to be romantic love.”

Marinette flinched, and Adrien sighed.

“What’s wrong with that?” the villain asked. “Are you hurt by the truth?”

“No, you’re just being super arophobic” Adrien muttered, not realizing he had spoken out loud until a moment too late. He slapped his hand over his mouth.

“It does sound really bad, I noticed that right before I said it.” Solitude replied. His booming voice sounded surprisingly ashamed. “Hmm, I need to find a better definition of love. Give me a second.”

“Why not just go with friendship?” Marinette asked. “Friendships are literally founded on love.” Adrien nodded.

“No, I get what you’re saying, but that doesn’t quite work.” Solitude said, frustrated. “It has to be more dramatic than that.”

“Friendships can be dramatic.” Adrien said. 

“Yeah, we literally stormed Adrien’s house to convince his father to let him come on this field trip. I don’t even think most romantic relationships are that dramatic.”

“Aww, that’s really sweet of you guys.” Solitude said. “But it’s not quite what I’m looking for. I’m still going to have to take Adrien captive.”

“Okay, wait, even if it has to be romantic love, Adrien’s definitely not lacking there. He’s a famous model, like half of Paris is in love with him, and he has fans all over the world. There’s probably people in this museum who have a crush on him.”

Solitude hissed. “That doesn’t work either. Celebrity crushes don’t count. It has to be LOVE.”

“So it’s not about romantic versus platonic?” Adrien asked.

“No, it’s more... wow, it’s actually really hard to define.” Solitude said.

“Romantic attraction is super confusing,” Marinette agreed. “I mean, attraction in general is confusing. Not that I would- I mean, I definitely- nothing recently has happened where- I’m not- I haven’t been specifically focused on trying to figure out the line between platonic and romantic love recently, for any particular reason, but if I was… actually… I’m just going to stop talking now...” she trailed off with nervous laughter.

“Ok so theoretically,” Adrien asked, sweating, “if I were to, just theoretically, be in some theoretical relationship that wasn’t completely romantic but also wasn’t completely platonic, because maybe, again totally theoretically, I wasn’t entirely alloromatic, then— theoretically, would that count? I’m not, it’s just... important for me to know.” 

“Oh, I didn’t think about that. Having a romantic significant other would definitely count, but I don’t know about other kinds of relationships.”

“You should really rethink your whole thing to be more inclusive,” Marinette said. “I’m not saying romance is bad at all, I’m super alloromantic, but romance definitely isn’t a requirement for love, and neither is attraction.”

“That’s a very good point!” the glowing blue form said, with a confusing amount of cheerfulness. “Aromantic people are incredibly valid, and it’s refreshing to see someone who cares so much about-”

“You have GOT to be kidding me.” a voice yelled. 

“Jess?” Marinette asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, hi there.” Jess appeared from behind a bookcase and awkwardly waved. “I was just playing this dumb game on my phone, and I got voted off of the ship even though the imposter had just vented in front of everybody- oh my goodness!” she pointed a little bit stiffly. “Solitude, the supervillain who captures those who are loved by no one, specifically defining love as something that would lead to an emotional bond and/or partnership more permanent and life-changing than a normal friendship, although not necessarily romantic. How did he get here? Whatever will we do?”

“It’s okay, we’re not in any danger,” Marinette said.

“How do you know?” Jess asked.

“I really doubt Solitude is going to do any harm. I’m mostly just upset about the whole ‘friendship isn’t real love’ thing.”

“I didn’t say friendship wasn’t real love. It’s just. It’s different from other kinds of love? I don’t know how to explain it”

“Yeah,” Adrien said, quietly. “Like, completely theoretically, not like I have any experience with it, but queerplatonic relationships are really not the same thing as normal friendships, even if they’re not romantic. There’s something there, and I don’t know if it’s deeper, but it is definitely… different. Like, there’s this feeling where you want to spend your whole life with that person, and they’re important to you in a different way, and you want to spend time alone with them and do cute couple-y things, but also you don’t want to kiss them or call them your girlfriend, but… I mean, not that I would know. I’m… I’m one hundred percent straight, and also single, and not in any secret relationships with anyone.”

Marinette blinked at Adrien for a second, and then turned back to Solitude. “Yeah,” she said, her voice becoming significantly more authoritative. “I’m not going to leave until you say aro rights.”

“What?” Solitude asked.

“Just say it.” Jess hissed.

“Aro rights?”

“Great. See, he said aro rights, we’re all good.”

Solitude’s flashlight eyes flickered in confusion. “I’m literally arospec, I don’t understand why-”

Jess made a stop gesture with her hands.

“Thanks,” Adrien said, with a small smile toward Marinette. “Um, Marinette, we should probably head back to the group. They’re going to worry about where we are.”

Jess coughed. “Don’t you think you should deal with the supervillian first-”

She was interrupted as Marinette slammed her shoulder into the door, forcing it open.

“It’ll be fine. There’s tons of superheroes in New York that can handle it.” She grabbed Adrien’s hand, whispering something that sounded like “its normal for friends to platonically hold hands,” and dragged Adrien into the main hallway as Jess followed behind them.

“Oh, um, thank you for saying that aromantic people are valid. Not that I necessarily am, but... I might… I’m pretty sure… Anyway, thanks!”

“That’s what friends are for.” Marinette said with a smile. “Maybe. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck friendship is. For no reason! Not because of you in particular, or anything. I don’t- romantic, I’m not doing the plane trip friend…” her words devolved into incoherant stuttering and she smiled nervously.

“Me too.” Adrien said. “Let me know if you figure out what the difference between platonic and romantic attraction is.”

“I will.” Marinette said, with a much more genuine smile.

“And no matter what Solitude said, your friendship means the world to me.” 

Marinette turned bright red and squeaked. “Oh, um- card flip, I mean, uno reverse? I mean…” She shifted so that she wasn’t looking directly at Adrien’s eyes, and took a few deep breaths. “I’m really glad that we’re friends, too. That’s more important than labels.”

***********

“So, how did it go?” Alya asked.

“You know what?” Jess said, glancing at Adrien and Marinette, who were laughing as they looked at paintings together. “I think it actually went pretty well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to KatyaDarlink for beta reading, and helping me to make this legible and in-character!! Also double thank you for being one of the people who appreciates the potential of queerplatonic love square!!
> 
> Please leave a comment and kudos if you enjoyed!!


End file.
